sedimentology of the lower serpukhovian (upper implications › bitstream › 1807 › 70145 › 1...

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Sedimentology of the lower Serpukhovian (upper

Mississippian) Mabou Group in the Cumberland Basin of eastern Canada; tectonic, halokinetic and climatic

implications

Journal: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences

Manuscript ID cjes-2015-0062.R1

Manuscript Type: Article

Date Submitted by the Author: 29-Aug-2015

Complete List of Authors: Jutras, Pierre; Dept of Geology McLeod, Jason; Saint Mary's University, Geology Utting, John; Geological Survey of Canada, Paleontology

Keyword: Mississippian paleoenvironments, Mississippian climate, Glacioeustasy, Halokinesis, Fault-controlled continental deposition

https://mc06.manuscriptcentral.com/cjes-pubs

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences

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Sedimentology of the lower Serpukhovian (upper

Mississippian) Mabou Group in the Cumberland Basin of

eastern Canada; tectonic, halokinetic and climatic implications

Pierre Jutras, Jason R. McLeod and John Utting

________________________________________________________________________

P. Jutras1, J.R. McLeod. Department of Geology, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax,

Nova Scotia, B3H 3C3, Canada.

J. Utting. Natural Resources Canada, Geological Survey of Canada (Calgary), 3303 33rd

St. NW, Calgary, AB, T2L-2A7, Canada. [email protected]

1 Corresponding author (e-mail: [email protected])

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Abstract: The Visean-Serpukhovian transition in Atlantic Canada was marked by a

general humidification of the climate as the region drifted towards equatorial latitudes. It

also corresponds to a time when ice volume was increasing on Gondwana, which marked

the end of Mississippian marine incursions in the region. Glacioeustatic fluctuations of

greater magnitude are thought to have increased the response of the regional climate to

third-order cyclicity from orbital forcing. In the Cumberland Basin, fluvial grey beds of

the lower Serpukhovian Shepody Formation were deposited in sub-humid conditions

during highstands, whereas red playa deposits of the same unit were deposited under

semi-arid conditions during lowstands. Basin reconstruction suggests that this unit was

sourced from the fault-bounded Cobequid and Caledonia highlands and deposited in two

separate salt-withdrawal minibasins. This fluvial system was seemingly discharging to

the north into the broad lake that deposited the contemporaneous Hastings Formation. A

disconformity separates the Shepody Formation from mid-Serpukhovian red beds of the

Claremont Formation and is tentatively associated with another increase in ice volume on

Gondwana followed by a recrudescence of fault activity and basin subsidence. A

prolonged time of aridity, floral crisis, non-deposition, deep weathering and karstification

in late Serpukhovian to early Bashkirian times is contemporaneous with abundant glacial

deposits in higher latitudes, suggesting that globally low sea-levels may have been at play

in creating a situation of greater continentality in the study area.

Keywords: continental clastic rocks; Mabou Group; strike-slip basin; halokinesis;

glacioeustasy; Mississippian; Serpukhovian; paleoenvironments

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Résumé: La transition du Viséen au Serpukhovien dans le Canada atlantique fût marquée

par une humidification générale du climat alors que la région dérivait en direction des

latitudes équatoriales. Cette époque correspond à un temps durant lequel le volume des

glaces était croissant sur Gondwana, mettant ainsi fin aux incursions marines

mississippiennes dans la région. L’amplitude croissante des fluctuations glacioeustatiques

à l’époque aurait rendu le climat régional plus sensible aux cycles orbitaux de troisième

ordre. Dans le bassin de Cumberland, les lits fluviaux gris de la formation de Shepody

(Serpukhovien inférieur) se seraient déposés dans des conditions sub-humides durant des

temps de hauts niveaux marins, tandis que les dépôts de playa de la même unité se

seraient déposés dans des condition semi-arides durant des temps de bas niveaux marins.

Cette unité se serait déposée à partir des hautes-terres de Cobéquid et de Calédonia à

l’intérieur de deux mini-bassins distincts. Ce système fluviatile aurait connecté au nord à

un grand lac dans lequel se serait déposée la formation contemporaine de Hastings. Une

discordance d’érosion sépare la formation de Shepody des lits rouges de la formation de

Claremont (Serpukhovien moyen) et corresponderait à une autre recrudescence des glaces

sur Gondwana suivie par une augmentation des taux de subsidence et d’activité de failles.

Des temps prolongés d’aridité, de crise florale, de non-déposition, d’altération profonde

et de karstification durant le Serpukhovien supérieur et le Bashkirien inférieur sont

contemporains à des dépôts glaciaires abondants en hautes latitudes, suggérant qu’un bas

niveau marin global aurait pu aggraver les conditions de continentalité dans la région

étudiée.

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Mots clés: Dépôts clastiques continentaux; Groupe de Mabou; bassin transtensionnel;

halokinesis; glacio-eustasie; Mississippien; Serpukhovien; paléoenvironnements

Introduction

In early Visean times, the composite Maritimes Basin of eastern Canada (Fig. 1;

inset) accommodated an approximately 1 km thick succession of evaporites in many of its

subbasins, including ~600 m of salt (Gibling et al. 2008). Because of its position in the

most tectonically active zone of the composite basin, it is estimated that the Cumberland

Basin of southern New Brunswick and northwest Nova Scotia (Fig. 1; inset) accumulated

2-3 km of salt and was characterized by the early onset of salt tectonics in late Visean

times (Waldron et al. 2013; Jutras et al. 2015), whereas evidence of pre-Pennsylvanian

salt tectonics is lacking in other subbasins of the Maritimes Basin.

Well-exposed upper Visean units in the western part of the Cumberland Basin

allowed a detailed reconstruction to be made of its minibasins at that time interval (Jutras

et al. 2015), setting the stage for our understanding of the more poorly-exposed lower

Serpukhovian units in that basin, which are here studied in detail for the first time.

Significant differences between early (Visean) and late (Pennsylvanian) halokinetic

settings were already identified (Jutras et al. 2015), and part of this study is to verify if

minibasin dynamics were already changing in Serpukhovian times.

In northeast and central Nova Scotia, the early Serpukhovian interval is

characterized by a succession of fine-grained continental clastic rocks that concordantly

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overlie the uppermost marine rocks of the Visean Windsor Group (Dawson 1873) and

that were assigned to the Mabou Group by Belt (1964, 1965; Fig. 2). Hamblin (2001)

studied in detail 17 outcrop sections distributed around northern Nova Scotia and

produced a sedimentologic and paleogeographic model for units of this group in that

general area. Of these sections, only one is from the Cumberland Basin, where the facies

of Mabou Group units substantially differ from those found in the rest of northern Nova

Scotia. This section is in the Joggins area (Fig. 1) and was also included by Allen et al.

(2013) in their study of the ~7 km thick upper Palaeozoic section at Joggins.

Hamblin (2001) identified overlapping orders of sedimentary cyclicity related to

variations in base-level in the fine, dominantly lacustrine facies of lower Serpukhovian

units in northeast Nova Scotia, whereas St. Peter and Johnson (2009) recognized only a

gradual coarsening-upward pattern in the coarser, dominantly fluvial facies of equivalent

units in southern New Brunswick. According to Giles (2009), the upper Visean

succession in Nova Scotia was already affected by glacioeustatic variations related to the

growth and decay of ice sheets on Gondwana, the amplitude of which increased at the

Visean-Serpukhovian transition (Rygel et al. 2008). In this paper, lower Serpukhovian

units are studied in the western part of the Cumberland Basin, where they are best-

exposed, to reconstruct the paleogeography of that basin and to evaluate the respective

contribution of fault tectonics, halokinesis and glacioeustatic variations at that interval.

This study also includes insights on the late Serpukhovian to early Bashkirian

paleogeography of the western part of the Cumberland Basin based on clues provided by

eodiagenetic overprints in the upper part of the lower Serpukhovian succession.

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Geological setting

The Cumberland Basin is part of the composite Maritimes Basin of eastern

Canada, which developed during the Late Devonian in the aftermath of the Early to

Middle Devonian Acadian Orogeny (Calder 1998; Gibling et al. 2008), when orogenic

deformation migrated towards New-England (Jutras et al. 2003). The Late Devonian to

Mississippian interval is characterized by continental deposits in small strike-slip basins

with local sources, except for the Visean portion, which includes epicontinental sea

deposits (Calder 1998; Gibling et al. 2008). As in the rest of the composite Maritimes

Basin, an unconformity is found between Mississippian and Pennsylvanian units in the

Cumberland Basin. This unconformity marks the first pulse of Alleghanian deformation

in the Maritimes Basin, which developed in association with the final closure of the Rheic

Ocean to the south (Faure et al. 1996; Jutras et al. 2003, 2005). According to these

authors, this resulted in the clockwise rotation of paleostresses in Atlantic Canada during

early Pennsylvanian times (sensu Richards 2013), which generated transpressive

deformation along the pre-existing fault system. In the Cumberland Basin, this translated

as the tilting and partial erosion of Mississippian strata. Subsequent Pennsylvanian

deposition was in part sourced from the developing Alleghanian Orogen in the eastern

U.S.A. at the time (Gibling et al. 1992, 2008). Starting in the late Visean and extending

into the rest of the Carboniferous, Maritimes Basin deposition was influenced by both

halokinesis (Waldron et al. 2013) and glacioeustasy (Giles 2009). Of the two salt

structures that are known in the study area, the Dorchester Salt Dome (reached by wells

Imperial Dorchester 1, Shell Dorchester 1 and Copper Mine Hill) was active in late

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Visean times, whereas the SSW-striking Maringouin-Minudie Anticline was still inactive

(Jutras et al. 2015; Fig. 1).

Stratigraphic framework

Visean units below the Mabou Group

The succession spanning from the first to the last Visean marine carbonate in

eastern Canada was included within the Windsor Group by Bell (1929), whereas the

overlying remainder of the Mississippian succession was originally assigned to the

abandoned Canso Group of Bell (1944), but later included within the Mabou Group by

Belt (1964, 65). Hamblin (2001) later refined the definition of the Mabou Group by

excluding from it the upper Visean red beds of the Middleborough Formation

(Maringouin Formation in New Brunswick), which overlie the uppermost Windsor Group

carbonate in northwest Nova Scotia, but which are not found in the Mabou Group type-

area of Cape Breton Island, northern Nova Scotia, where Windsor Group carbonates

reach higher into the Visean (Fig. 2). In eastern Quebec, where the Visean interval is only

characterized by continental clastics, similar and contemporaneous red beds were

assigned to the Percé Group (Jutras and Prichonnet 2005), which is thought to be time-

equivalent to the entire Windsor Group2.

2 Note: despite these recent developments in stratigraphic nomenclature, many workers (e.g. St. Peter

and Johnson 2009; Allen et al. 2013; Waldron et al. 2013) still lump units of the Percé and Mabou groups

(sensu Hamblin 2001, and Jutras and Prichonnet 2005) within an expanded Mabou Group that includes

Visean red beds of the Hopewell Cape and Middleborough formations.

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Based on precedence, we here use the term Middleborough Formation of Bell and

Norman (1938) over the Maringouin Formation of Norman (1941) in reference to fine,

planar-bedded uppermost Asbian to Brigantian red beds that underlie the Mabou Group

(sensu Hamblin 2001 and Jutras et al. 2015) in central areas of the Cumberland Basin

(Fig. 2). These beds grade laterally into coarse red beds of the Hopewell Cape Formation

(Percé Group) towards source areas (Jutras et al. 2015; Fig. 2). The lower part of this

formation is characterized by coarse, planar-bedded fan delta conglomerates in the

northwest sector of the Cumberland Basin (Hopewell Rocks Member), and by cross-

cutting channels of conglomerate and sandstone in other sectors of the basin (Shin

Member; Fig. 2). The upper part of the Hopewell Cape Formation is characterized by

finer red beds with abundant calcretes (the Dorchester Cape Member of St. Peter and

Johnson 2009; Fig. 2).

Mabou Group units

In the most comprehensive study on the Mabou Group to date, Hamblin (2001)

recognized only two units within that group, namely the grey and red mudrock with

minor sandstone and carbonate of the upper Brigantian to Pendleian Hastings Formation

(Rostoker 1960), and the red and minor grey mudrock and sandstone of the Arsnbergian

Pomquet Formation (Belt 1965; Fig. 2; see Palynology section for age constraints).

Although the Serpukhovian interval is much coarser in the Cumberland Basin, Hamblin

(2001) recognized a lateral consistency with contemporaneous successions of northern

and central Nova Scotia, where a dominantly grey basal interval and a dominantly red

upper interval are also found. Hence, this author still referred to these coarser

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stratigraphic units as respectively the Hastings and Pomquet formations. However, most

other workers have been referring to these coarser equivalents as respectively the

Shepody and Enragé formations of Norman (1941) in southern New Brunswick (e.g. St.

Peter and Johnson 2009 and references therein), and as respectively the Shepody and

Claremont (Bell and Norman 1938) formations in northwest Nova Scotia (e.g. Ryan and

Boehner 1994; Waldron et al. 2013). Because the Enragé Formation is not exposed at the

type locality of Cape Enragé (Figure 1), and because the Claremont Formation has

precedence, the latter appellation is herein used along with the term Shepody Formation

(Fig. 2). We therefore refer to the grey-bed-dominated base of the Mabou Group as the

Hastings Formation when mainly characterized by mudrock, but as the Shepody

Formation when the grey bed intervals are mainly sandy; and refer to the red-bed-

dominated upper part of the Mabou Group as the Pomquet Formation when mainly

characterized by alternations of sandstone and mudrock, and as the Claremont Formation

when mainly characterized by alternations of sandstone and conglomerate.

Basal Cumberland Group units

Throughout Atlantic Canada, the Mabou Group is unconformably overlain by the

lower Pennsylvanian Cumberland Group (Bell 1944; Fig. 2). In the Cumberland Basin,

the base of this group is occupied by the Boss Point Formation, which has been separated

into several members by St. Peter and Johnson (2009). In most of the study area, the base

of the Boss Point Formation is occupied by grey sandstone of the Ward Point Member or

of the laterally equivalent and petrographically similar Beau Creek Member; but in the

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southwest part of the study area, these members are underlain by fine red beds of the

Chignecto Bay Member (St. Peter and Johnson 2009; Fig. 2).

Studied sections

Six coastal sections in which rocks of the Serpukhovian interval are well

represented were measured across the Cumberland Basin at Cape Enragé, Maringouin West

and Maringouin East, New Brunswick (Figs. 1, 3), and at Downing Head West, Downing

Head East and Downing Cove, Nova Scotia (Figs. 1, 4). The sections are positioned in line

with stratigraphic markers high in the Shepody Formation (base of G1b on Figure 3, and

base of G1a on Figure 4; see Air Photo Analysis section), and are measured from the base

of this unit (Figs. 3, 4). Also included in this study to evaluate post-depositional erosion are

key sections or localities in which thin remnants of the Mabou Group (the Dorchester Cape

and Well Mud Creek 52 wells; Fig. 1) or older rocks (the Hopewell Cape, Calhoun and

Gaytons sections, and the Shell Dorchester 1, Imperial Dorchester 1, Columbia Beaumont

L-24, and Columbia/Corridor Copper Mine Hill F-88-2329 wells; Fig. 1) are

unconformably truncated by lower Pennsylvanian rocks.

Palynology

The Shepody Formation

Based on our new data, the lower part of the Shepody Formation straddles the

Schopfipollenites acadiensis - Knoxisporites triradiatus (AT) and Grandispora spinosa-

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Ibrahimispores magnificus (SM) concurrent range zones (Figs. 3, 4), which are

respectively Brigantian (late Visean to early Serpukhovian) and late Brigantian to

Pendleian (early Serpukhovian; Utting and Giles 2004). According to recent estimations,

the Brigantian substage itself straddles the Visean-Serpukhovian boundary (Richards

2013). Hence, the SM zone can be assumed to be entirely Serpukhovian, and the AT-SM

transition possibly corresponds to the Visean-Serpukhovian transition.

At Cape Enragé, Maringouin West and Downing Cove, basal beds of the Shepody

Formation bear an SM assemblage (Figs. 3, 4) based on the diagnostic presence of

Ibrahimispores magnificus within those beds, along with abundant Crassispora trychera

and Punctatsiporites glaber, with Auroraspora magna, Calamospora sp., Colatispora

decorus, Discernisporites micromanifestus, Rugospora minuta, Schopfites claviger,

Shopfipollenites acadiensis, Spelaeotriletes windsorii, and Spelaeotriletes bellii. At

Maringouin East (Fig. 3), basal beds of that unit bear a similar assemblage, but without

Ibrahimispores magnificus, suggesting an AT affinity (Utting and Giles 2004). However,

we acknowledge that a relative rarity of diagnostic taxa may result in some cases in applied

zonal definitions that are tentative. Therefore, the absence of Ibrahimispores magnificus in

basal Shepody beds at Maringouin East does not in itself preclude a late Brigantian or even

Pendleian age for these beds. This is well demonstrated by the lack of this diagnostic taxon

in a sample from near the top of the Shepody Formation at Cape Enragé, between intervals

that do include that taxon (Fig. 3). Moreover, although Ibrahimispores magnificus was not

found in several samples from basal grey beds of the Hastings Formation in the Mabou

type-area of Cape Breton Island (northern Nova Scotia), with the rest of the spore

assemblage suggesting that they belong to the AT zone (Utting 2011), this taxon was later

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found in beds from the underlying uppermost Windsor Group, suggesting that the AT-SM

boundary is significantly lower than previously thought in that section (Opdyke et al.

2014). At Maringouin East, the greater measured thickness of Shepody Formation beds

below stratigraphic markers higher in the succession (Fig. 3, 4) supports the possibility that

the most basal occurrences of this unit may be slightly older at that locality than at other

localities, but assignment to the AT zone may nonetheless be erroneous.

In summary, a large amount of uncertainty remains regarding the age of beds

bearing an AT assemblage, which could be either latest Visean or early Serpukhovian, but

those bearing an SM assemblage can be more safely considered to be early Serpukhovian.

In this study, because they are distinguished by significant environmental changes, rocks of

the Percé and Mabou groups are presumed to be entirely Visean and Serpukhovian,

respectively (Fig. 2), although this is neither demonstrated nor refuted by palynology at this

stage.

The Hastings Formation

A similar assemblage, without Ibrahimispores magnificus, was identified by Dolby

(1997) from grey mudrock cuttings of the Mabou Group in the Mud Creek 52 Well of New

Brunswick Gas and Oilfields Ltd. (Fig. 1), ~4 m below basal Pennsylvanian strata (the

Beau Creek Member of the Boss Point Formation, sensu St. Peter and Johnson 2009), and

above a thin succession of Dorchester Cape Member red beds that onlaps basement rocks

of the Westmorland Highlands (Fig. 1). Despite the absence of Ibrahimispores magnificus,

Dolby (1997) considered the assemblage to be Serpukhovian. Considering the findings of

Opdyke et al. (2014), we concur with this assessment. This contact is also observed at

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Dorchester Cape (Fig. 1), where small lenses (less than 30 cm thick and 1 m wide) of grey

mudrock with a late Brigantian to Pendleian spore assemblage (SM zone) are found below

the very low-angle unconformity that separates the Dorchester Cape Member from the

basal grey sandstones of the Pennsylvanian Beau Creek Member of the Boss Point

Formation (Jutras et al. 2015). These thin mudrock occurrences above the Dorchester Cape

Member of the Hopewell Cape Formation are interpreted to be small remnants of the

Hastings Formation. As suggested by the high amount of reworked Brigantian to Pendleian

spores in the basal beds of that unit at Dorchester Cape (Dolby 1996), the Hastings

Formation was largely eroded from the northern sectors of the study area and incorporated

within the lower Pennsylvanian Boss Point Formation,

The Claremont Formation

Utting et al. (2010) reported an SM assemblage for the base of the Claremont

Formation at Downing Head. However, these spore-bearing beds are below the

unconformity that marks the sharp boundary between the Shepody and Claremont

formations (Figs. 3, 4) and are therefore no longer considered to belong to the latter

formation.

In the type-area of the Mabou Group, the top of the grey-bed-dominated Hastings

Formation reaches into the Reticulatisporites carnosus Concurrent Range Zone (late

Pendleian to Arsnbergian) based on the presence of Dictyotriletes castaneaeformis and

Savitrisporites nux, and all productive samples within the overlying red-bed-dominated

Pomquet Formation also bear this assemblage (Utting 2011; Opdyke et al. 2014). Hence,

based on stratigraphic affinities with the Pomquet Formation of northern Nova Scotia

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(Hamblin 2001), the barren Claremont Formation is inferred to be upper Pendleian to

Arsnbergian. To facilitate communication, we here refer to the Hastings and Shepody

formations as upper Brigantian to Pendleian, and the Pomquet and Claremont formations as

Arsnbergian.

The Boss Point Formation (Cumberland Group)

In the four sections where productive samples near the base of the Cumberland

Group (Boss Point Formation) could be retrieved (the Dorchester Cape, Maringouin West

and Downing Head East section), the presence of F. pumicosus, P. elegans,

Florinites/Potonieisporites complex and Wilsonites sp. suggest a Yeadonian to Langsettian

age (lower Pennsylvanian; Raistrickia saetosa Concurrent Range Zone) for these beds

(Figs. 3-4). Hence, the hiatus between the Claremont and Boss Point formations spans the

Chokierian, Alportian, Kinderscoutian, Marsdenian and possibly the Yeadonian.

Sedimentology of Mabou Group units in the western

Cumberland Basin

The Shepody Formation

The contact between the Middleborough and Shepody formations is sharp and

disconformable throughout the west-central Cumberland Basin. The lowermost coarse

grey sandstone bed of the Shepody Formation is observed to deeply downcut into the fine

underlying red beds, especially at Cape Enragé (Fig. 5A) and at Maringouin West.

The Shepody Formation at all localities consists of a repetitive succession of

fining-upward sequences that start with grey or red, coarse to granular sandstone with

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plant remains and grey or red mud clasts, followed by fine to tightly interbedded red

mudrock and fine sandstone, or simply mudrock (Figs. 3, 4). Moving up section, the

coarse sandstone beds that begin each fining-upward sequence become thicker, more

abundant, and more often thoroughly grey (Figs. 3, 4). At all localities, these grey

sandstone beds occasionally contain thin lenses of grey, intraformational pebble

conglomerate (Figs. 3, 4). The sandstone beds are mostly cross-channelized, whereas the

red intervals are planar-bedded and display moderate pedogenic overprints in the form of

mottling, root traces and minor calcitic nodules (Figs. 3, 4). The intraformational

conglomeratic lenses and fossilized plant remains become increasingly abundant, moving

west towards the Cape Enragé section (Figs. 3, 4).

The Shepody Formation at Maringouin West is ~ 60 m thinner than at Maringouin

East, although only ~8 km separate the two sections (Figs. 1, 3). This is possibly

explained by older occurrences of the Shepody Formation facies at Maringouin East,

which bears an AT spore assemblage in basal beds at that locality, whereas the first

occurrence of that facies bears an SM spore assemblage at Maringouin West (Fig. 3). As

expressed in the palynology section, there are good reasons to doubt that the basal beds at

Maringouin East truly belong to the AT zone, but they nonetheless appear to represent an

earlier infill in a deeper part of the disconformable surface than that below the

Maringouin West and Downing Cove sections. Overall, the thickness of the Shepody

Formation increases from east to west, evolving from a full section of ~280 m at

Downing Cove to an incomplete section of ~390 m at Cape Enragé (Figs 1, 3, 4). It

should also be noted that the Cape Enragé section is offset by numerous faults, with

displacement along these faults on the order of potentially tens of metres. Because

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displacements exceed the depth of the cliff face, and because of the high degree of lateral

variability, correlation is at best difficult. Error in thickness estimation is probable, but

mainly a risk in terms of underestimation. Hence, measurements at Cape Enragé

document a minimum thickness.

The Claremont Formation

Thanks to a shoreline clean-up by Hurricane Noel in 2007, the unconformable

contact between the uppermost grey sandstone bed of the Shepody Formation and coarse

red beds of the overlying Claremont Formation is now well exposed at both Downing

Cove and Downing Head East and West (Figs. 4, 6), approximately 10 m above what

Ryan and Boehner (1994) considered to be the contact between these two formations.

The basal bed at each section is an intraclastic conglomerate composed of red or grey

mudstone clasts and red or grey fine sandstone clasts. The clasts of these basal

conglomeratic beds were scavenged from the underlying Shepody Formation by

downcutting (Fig. 5B).

In the study area, the Claremont Formation consists mainly of red, cross-cutting

channels of coarse to granular sandstone along with granular and pebble conglomerate,

fine to medium sandstone, and mudstone. At all localities, the first few occurrences of

conglomerate are intraclastic, whereas the other occurrences are quartzose granular

conglomerate and polymictic pebble conglomerate that is also rich in quartz.

The Claremont Formation fines away from Downing Head West, both eastwardly

and westwardly (Fig. 3 and 4). At Downing Head West, despite a composition that

includes less than 5% carbonate (McLeod 2010), large karstic shafts and galleries (up to

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several metres wide) occur throughout the upper half of the Claremont Formation in

coarse to pebbly sandstone and are infilled by sandy mudstone (Fig. 5C). At Downing

Head East, the same interval is characterized by deep weathering, but no large karst.

Provenance

Paleocurrent data were obtained from scour-and-fill trough orientations in

sandstone intervals of the Shepody (Fig. 6A) and Claremont (Fig. 6B) formations at all

sections where these units occur. The Shepody and Claremont formations show

consistent NNW-verging paleocurrent vectors in the Maringouin, Downing Head and

Downing Cove sections, and the Shepody Formation shows SE-verging paleocurrent

vectors at Cape Enragé, which are altogether similar to those found in the underlying

Middleborough Formation in those sections, and which suggest that the inferred

Cobequid Highland and Caledonia Highland sources for the Visean unit (Fig. 1; Jutras et

al. 2015) were still sourcing that sector of the Cumberland Basin during the

Serpukhovian.

Note that our results from Downing Cove show a much more constrained range

than that obtained by Hamblin (2001) in the same section. Our data also differ from those

of Allen et al. (2013), who imply a dominance of SE-verging vectors for the Shepody and

Claremont formations in the Joggins area in their Figure 5, but mostly north-south vectors

in their Figure 13, with no details on the nature of the paleocurrent data. We consider

these SE-verging vectors to be incompatible with data from seismic line 539 of Devon

Canada (2002; in Waldron and Rygel 2005), which stretches north-south from the town

of Joggins towards the Cobequid Highlands (Fig. 1), and in which an increase in the

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coherence of reflectors towards the north suggests that the source is to the south. This

relationship is especially clear in the Langsettian interval, where the coarse clastic rocks

of the Polly Brook Formation transition to the north into the finer clastic rocks of the

Joggins Formation (Waldron and Rygel 2005), in which Allen et al. (2013) also note a

dominance of highly improbable SE-verging vectors.

Since our paleocurrent data differ so much from those of previous authors

(Hamblin 2001; Allen et al. 2013), and since data from the latter authors also differ

substantially from each other, an assessment of data reliability is here called for. In our

experience of collecting broadly distributed paleocurrent measurements from braided

fluvial systems (Jutras et al. 1999, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2015; Jutras and Prichonnet, 2002,

2004, 2005), we now consider data collected from channel-fills (clast imbrications, ripple

marks, planar-cross bedding and parting lineations) as highly unreliable, because

deposition of the latter can be from weak secondary currents that were strongly

influenced by the geometry of the channels, whereas scours are the products of stronger

currents that reflect better the direction of the source area. Two-thirds of the paleocurrent

measurements in Hamblin (2001) are from ripple mark orientations, which we consider as

unreliable. The nature of the measurements made by Allen et al. (2013) is unknown, but

as they have included 364 measurements from sections in which we could only find 51

reliable paleocurrent features, we conclude that their rose diagrams are dominated by data

that we here consider as unreliable to determine the position of the source area in relation

to the studied unit.

A Cobequid source is consistent with clast contents in the Shepody and Claremont

formations, which include abundant rhyolite, phyllite, schist and polycrystalline quartz

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(McLeod 2010). These lithologies are commonly found in the Cobequid Highlands shear

zone (Pe-Piper and Piper 2002), although it should be noted that post-Mississippian

dextral displacement along this fault is considered to be quite substantial and that the

source area of the herein studied sections is most likely now located below the Bay of

Fundy.

The Mississippian-Pennsylvanian transition

The uppermost Claremont Formation is exposed only at Downing Head East,

where it terminates with a ~5 m thick, red, muddy paleosol (Fig. 4). The latter is

disconformably downcut by an intraclastic grey conglomerate that evolves upward into

grey sandstone and that corresponds to the base of the Ward Point Member of the

Pennsylvanian Boss Point Formation (Fig. 5D). This is in contrast with the Maringouin

West section, ~23 km to the WSW, where up to 65 m of fine red beds of the Boss Point

Formation Chignecto Bay Member separate the Ward Point Member from the Claremont

Formation (Figs. 1, 4).

At Cape Enragé, a ~345 m gap separates the uppermost exposure of the Shepody

Formation from grey sandstone of the Ward Point Member (Fig. 3). Based on mapping

extrapolations from available exposures inland from Cape Enragé (St. Peter and Johnson

2009), this gap may be occupied by the Claremont Formation and the Chignecto Bay

Member of the Boss Point Formation (Figs. 1, 3).

Based on our data and those of St. Peter and Johnson (2009), an increasing

amount of Mississippian strata is missing below the Cumberland Group towards the north

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(Fig. 1). Most of the Mabou Group is present below the Cumberland Group at Cape

Enragé, Maringouin, Downing Head and Downing Cove, to the south, but very little

remains north of the Shepody-Beckwith Fault (Fig. 1). Pre-Cumberland erosion reaches

deep down into the Visean Hopewell Cape Formation at Hopewell Cape, down into the

base of the Upper Devonian to Tournaisian Horton Group at Gaytons, just south of the

Gaytons Fault, and down into Westmorland basement rocks at Calhoun, just north of the

latter fault (Fig. 1). As the Chignecto Bay Member is mainly present where the

Mississippian succession is most complete (St. Peter and Johnson 2009), it is possibly a

product of erosion of the latter.

No paleocurrent vectors could be retrieved from the fine red beds of the

Chignecto Bay Member of the Boss Point Formation. In the overlying Ward Point

Member at Maringouin West, paleocurrent vectors are still north-verging, suggesting a

Cobequid Highland source for these beds, which is supported by the above-mentioned

trends in seismic line 539 (Waldron and Rygel 2005), but which contradict the

dominantly east-verging paleocurrent vectors reported by Allen et al. (2013).

Air-photo analysis

Air photos obtained from the Map Library of Service Nova Scotia were used to

verify the lateral extent of thick, coarse sandstone units in the Shepody Formation at the

Downing Cove and Downing Head sections, and to see how the Shepody/Claremont and

Claremont/Boss Point contacts evolve laterally. The uppermost three grey sandstone

intervals can be traced from Downing Cove to Downing Head West, which are labelled

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from the top down as G1 to G3 (Fig. 4), with G1 being subdivided as G1a and G1b on

each side of a thin muddy interval (Fig. 7).

The sandstone units denoted as G3 and G2 display a relatively consistent

thickness, with an equally thick succession of red mudrock separating the two units.

These units appear to be laterally continuous over several kilometres, spanning the

Downing Cove and Downing Head sections, and extending possibly as far as the

Maringouin sections based on tentative correlations (Fig. 3).

On both air photos (Fig. 7B) and stratigraphic sections (Fig. 4), an important

thinning of the G1 unit is observable between Downing Cove and Downing Head West

due to the truncation of most of the G1a unit by the disconformably overlying Claremont

Formation at the latter section. GPS coordinate data obtained in the field were used to

plot the contact on both sides of Downing Cove in Google Earth. The coordinates

matched the expected position of the contact based solely on the image. Hence, although

only 10 m of G1a is missing at Downing Cove West, compared with Downing Cove East,

this 10 m of downcutting is well observable on air photos due to the relatively shallow

dip of the succession, which ranges between 35° and 40°, and which therefore

exaggerates the disconformity. In contrast, the disconformity between the Claremont and

Boss Point formations is much less significant at that scale based on observable

lineaments on the air photo (Fig. 13), although the contact is not exposed on the west side

of the headland, which makes the amount of downcutting difficult to estimate.

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Discussion

Sedimentary environments of the Shepody and Hastings formations

The lateral persistency of the two alternating facies of the Shepody Formation

suggests that they were controlled by climate cyclicity. The successions of coarse, grey,

cross-channelized sandstone with plant remains, which are laterally uninterrupted on

exposures that span up to 3 km in some cases, are interpreted as sandy braidplain

deposits. We concur with Allen et al. (2013) that they must have been deposited by

strongly seasonal fluvial systems. However, the preservation of coal suggests a non-arid

setting, and the common occurrence of the trilete spores Schopfites claviger and

Colatisporites decorus in those beds more specifically suggests a sub-humid setting (van

der Zwan 1981). In contrast, the intervals of planar-bedded red mudstone and fine

sandstone with pedogenic overprints are interpreted as playa deposits from more arid

periods. The lack of evidence for overbank deposition in the fine red bed facies, such as

splay deposits, also supports the conclusion that it is not the floodplain lateral equivalent

of the coarse channel deposits.

Evidence of frequent channel avulsion, deep downcutting and pervasive

pedogenic overprinting in the upper Brigantian to Pendleian Shepody Formation suggest

that it has evolved in a more purely continental environment than the planar-bedded,

upper Asbian to lower Brigantian Middleborough Formation, which shows evidence for

subtidal to supratidal environments (Jutras et al. 2015). This conclusion is also supported

by the regional stratigraphy of Nova Scotia, which records in several areas a transition

from marine to continental environments near the Visean-Serpukhovian boundary.

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Paleoenvironmental implications

Giles (2009) demonstrated that Atlantic Canada was affected by significant

glacioeustatic variations in late Visean times, starting in the upper Asbian. In the

Cumberland Basin, this base-level cyclicity was partly masked by excessive subsidence

in salt expulsion minibasins (Jutras et al. 2015). Glacioeustasy is probably responsible for

alternations between carbonates and sub-tidal siliciclastic deposits in the upper Asbian

Lime-kiln Brook Formation of the Cumberland Basin, but no clear cyclicity has been

recognized in laterally equivalent sulfate and in overlying Brigantian red beds, which

seemingly evolved in a consistently hyper-arid setting (Jutras et al. 2015). Climate

cyclicity is more apparent in the Shepody Formation, with grey sandstone intervals being

interpreted as the record of warm cycles, which would have resulted in an increase of

ocean water evaporation and atmospheric moisture, whereas the red bed intervals are

interpreted to be the record of colder and globally more arid cycles. Hence, the Visean-

Serpukhovian transition is not only marked by a final retreat of the Windsor Sea from

Nova Scotia, but also by a significant humidification of the climate, which also became

more sensitive to orbital cyclicity.

Based on the paleomagnetic studies of Scotese and McKerrow (1990) and Ziegler

et al. (2002), Atlantic Canada was located in the paleo-subtropics and migrating towards

the paleoequator in late Mississippian times, which may partly explain the general

humidification of the climate at the Visean-Serpukhovian transition (Allen et al. 2011).

The Visean-Serpukhovian transition also corresponds to a time when ice volume was

increasing on Gondwana (Rygel et al. 2008), which might explain why glacioeustatic

Windsor Sea incursions in eastern Canada stopped occurring in early Serpukhovian times

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(Giles 2009; Opdyke et al. 2014). According to Rygel et al. (2008), an increase in the

amplitude of glacioeustatic variations and therefore global climate fluctuations also

occurred at the Visean-Serpukhovian transition, which may in part explain why such

climate fluctuations are better recorded in continental clastic successions of the early

Serpukhovian than in those of the Viséan in Atlantic Canada.

The Shepody/Claremont disconformity

Postulating that the base of the Claremont Formation is younger than the

uppermost beds of the Hastings Formation in Northern Nova Scotia, which bear an late

Pendleian to Arsnbergian Reticulatisporites carnosus spore assemblage (Utting 2011), a

substantial thickness of originally deposited Pendleian beds may be missing below the

Shepody/Claremont unconformity, as a late Brigantian to Pendleian SM spore

assemblage was retrieved less than 1 m below this unconformity at Maringouin East (Fig.

3). This erosion event may have been more substantial east of the study area, where the

Shepody Formation is reportedly absent below the Claremont Formation (Ryan and

Boehner 1994; Waldron et al. 2013).


The erosion event that separates the Shepody and Claremont formations is

possibly associated with a significant lowering of base-level in relation to the ongoing

size increase of Gondwanan glaciations in late Mississippian times (Isbell et al. 2003;

Rygel et al. 2008). However, if erosion was indeed much more substantial east of the

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study area, a period of tectonic uplift is also possible. The glacioeustatic hypothesis is

here favoured because of the significantly different climate signature that is found on

each side of the disconformity.

Sedimentary environments of the basal Claremont Formation

Deposition of the coarse Claremont Formation is interpreted to mark an increase

in fault activity and basin subsidence rates near the Pendleian-Arsnbergian boundary,

which ended the preceding period of basin erosion. The passage from coaly grey

sandstones of the Shepody Formation to barren red conglomerates of the Claremont

Formation is interpreted to be the record of a return to more arid conditions in the

Arsnbergian, but not as arid as during the Visean, as reflected by mineralogically more

mature conglomerates, intraclasts excluded, and as indicated by the presence of lycopsid

spores in the laterally equivalent Pomquet Formation (Utting and Giles 2008). The

vertically persistent succession of cross-cutting conglomerate channels suggests that the

depositional environment of the Claremont Formation was that of a semi-arid gravelly

braidplain, which is on par with the assessments of Hamblin (2001) and Allen et al.

(2013).


Global climate degradation and a size increase of Gondwanan glaciations are

inferred to explain the return to greater aridity near the Pendleian-Arsnbergian boundary.

The Claremont Formation is interpreted to have been deposited farther from the sea than

the underlying Shepody Formation. Moreover, no clear evidence of climate cyclicity

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could be found in this unit. This is also possibly explained by greater continentality,

which may have made the regional climate less sensitive to global glacioeustatic

fluctuations.

Sedimentary and eodiagenetic environments of the upper beds of the Claremont

Formation

Very deep and pervasive weathering in the upper part of the Claremont Formation

suggests that a substantial decrease in sedimentation rates occurred at that interval.

Sedimentary quiescence seems to have been especially prolonged at the very top of the

Claremont Formation, where deep weathering is observed just below the disconformity

with the Pennsylvanian Boss Point Formation, which coincides with the Mississippian-

Pennsylvanian transition. The development of karst below the Claremont/Boss Point

unconformity at Downing Head West (Fig. 4) suggests that these units are separated by

not-only a significant period of non-deposition, weathering and erosion, but also by

eodiagenetic cementation, as karst can only develop in consolidated rocks with generally

low-porosity (Ford and Williams 2007).


The long period of non-deposition, weathering, cementation, karstification and

erosion that followed deposition of the Claremont Formation and preceded deposition of

the Boss Point Formation corresponds to a large hiatus that is found throughout Atlantic

Canada between Arsnbergian (late Serpukhovian) and Yeadonian to Langsettian (mid-

Bashkirian) beds, with the latest Mississippian and earliest Pennsylvanian intervals

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missing entirely. This hiatus has been associated with a major paleoenvironmental crisis

that is also well-recorded in Europe and that was followed by a substantial palynofloral

change in the early Pennsylvanian (Utting 1987; Utting and Giles 2008). As suggested

by well-recorded glacial deposits during that time period (Isbell et al. 2003), an increase

in the ongoing deterioration of global climate and the associated aggravation of

Gondwanan glaciations near the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary may have

promoted hyper-aridity and low base-level in Atlantic Canada at the time, thus explain

both the floral crisis and the hiatus.

Because of the siliciclastic composition of the Claremont Formation, very unusual

groundwater conditions must have developed to account for karst development in these

rocks. To explain a similar situation in the Hopewell Cape Formation at Hopewell Cape

(Fig. 1), Jutras and McLeod (submitted) proposed that high pH groundwater conditions

may have developed in the arid Visean context, which are here also inferred for the late

Serpukhovian to early Bashkirian occurrences. Above a groundwater pH of 9, siliciclastic

material can go through nearly congruent solution due to a significant increase of both

silica and aluminium solubility (Blatt et al. 1980).

As the karst occurrences in the Claremont Formation did not form as close to the

source area as those in the coarse Hopewell Cape Formation, a less complex scenario is

necessary to explain their formation. A semi-arid climate would best provide a sluggish

but continuous groundwater flow that could become increasingly alkaline in central parts

of the basin because of high evaporation rates, favoring early cementation by calcite, and

eventually favouring the dissolution of silicate minerals in an alkaline groundwater flow

concentrated between aquicludes. These well-developed karstic features are the record of

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a long period of non-deposition during which this part of the basin was lying above base-

level and was possibly dissected by fluvial cuts. In this context, karst would have best

developed in areas of increased groundwater circulation towards fluvial cuts.

Paleogeographic model for the Serpukhovian interval in the Cumberland Basin

Late Visean prequel

The well-recorded late Visean setting of the Cumberland Basin (Fig. 8) provides a

foundation for our reconstruction of the less well-recorded Serpukhovian setting, which

was largely eroded prior to Pennsylvanian deposition. To explain lateral variations of

facies and the lateral distribution of paleocurrent vectors, Jutras et al. (2015) proposed

that at least two syndepositional salt diapirs (including the well-documented Dorchester

Salt Dome of Martel 1987) and three salt expulsion minibasins were active during late

Visean deposition and were controlled by differential clastic loading issued from the

Cobequid Highlands to the south, the Caledonia Highlands to the west, and the

Westmorland Highlands to the north (Fig. 8). In this setting, marine and evaporitic

Visean deposits were concentrated in the three inferred areas of salt expulsion, northeast

of Hopewell Cape, east of Downing Cove, and south of Cape Enragé (Fig. 8).

Grey intervals of the Shepody Formation

At all localities in which the Shepody Formation is exposed, it displays similar

paleocurrent trends to those of the underlying Visean units (Figs. 6A, 8). This suggests

similar tectonic and halokinetic environments in which sedimentation was still controlled

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by at least two of the fault-bounded source areas, namely the Cobequid and Caledonia

Highlands (Fig. 9). The lack of convergence between river flows issued from the

Caledonia Highlands with those issued from the Cobequid Highlands suggests that the

latter were still funnelled in separate minibasins, as was inferred for the Visean

successions (Jutras et al. 2015). However, the few remnants of time-equivalent grey units

in the northwestern part of the Cumberland Basin, at Dorchester Cape and in Well Mud

Creek 52 (Fig. 1), are fine-grained and partly onlapping the Westmorland basement,

which does not suggest that the latter was still exposed at the time. Moreover, there is

sedimentological evidence in the time-equivalent Hastings Formation of northern Nova

Scotia for wide and open lacustrine conditions towards the north of our study area (Giles

and Utting 1999; Hamblin 2001), which suggests that the north-verging rivers that

deposited the grey beds of the Shepody Formation at Maringouin, Downing Cove and

Downing Head were not far from their connection to an open lake. It is here interpreted

that this fluviatile – lacustrine connection occurred in the area that separates these

sections from the Dorchester Cape and Mud Creek 52 sections (Fig. 9), where remnants

of grey mudrock that correlate well with the Hastings Formation are found. In this

context, the submerged Westmorland basement block may have formed a lacustrine shoal

(Fig. 9).

Red intervals of the Shepody Formation

The lack of large fluvial channel fills in the red intervals of the Shepody

Formation suggests that arid alluvial fans that were sourced from the Cobequid Highlands

were passing laterally into playa deposits over a short distance (Fig. 10). This is

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interpreted to be the result of shorter-lived and more dispersed flow discharge, which is

typical of arid continental environments.

The Claremont Formation interval

The similarity in paleocurrent directions between the Shepody and Claremont

formations at Maringouin, Downing Head and Downing Cove (Fig. 6) suggests that at

least the Cobequid Highlands were still active as a source area when the latter unit was

deposited (Fig. 11). Based on the conglomeratic nature of the few exposures of the

Claremont Formation that are near the Caledonia Highlands (St. Peter and Johnson 2009),

it can be inferred that the latter was also still active as a source area. However, the

marked increase in coarseness above the Shepody-Claremont contact, especially if only

red intervals are considered, suggests that these source areas were more quickly

rejuvenated by more active faults during deposition of the latter unit. The gravelly

braidplain deposits of the Claremont Formation are interpreted to have passed laterally

into sandy braidplain and eventually playa deposits of the Pomquet Formation (Fig. 11),

although these transitions are now fragmented and discontinuous due to early

Pennsylvanian deformation and erosion.

Summary and conclusions

Serpukhovian events in the western Cumberland Basin of Atlantic Canada can be

summarized in the following way:

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- Significant humidification of the climate near the Visean-Serpukhovian

boundary as the Maritimes Basin migrated closer to the paleoequator (Scotese

and McKerrow 1990; Ziegler et al. 2002; Allen et al. 2011), which resulted in

the preservation of organic matter in much of the fluvial sediments of the

Shepody Formation.

- Increase in the magnitude of orbitally-controlled glacioeustatic and climatic

fluctuations at the Visean-Serpukhovian transition because of an increase in

ice volume on Gondwana at the time (Rygel et al. 2008). In this new context,

both highstands and lowstands would have been lower than equivalent cycles

during the Visean, which explains why marine incursions no longer occurred

during the Serpukhovian in Atlantic Canada. The organic-rich, non-oxidized

channel-sand bodies of the Shepody Formation are here interpreted as having

been deposited in sub-humid conditions during highstands, whereas red playa

intervals of the same unit are interpreted as having been deposited in semi-arid

conditions during lowstands.

- Although better documented in the more widely preserved upper Visean units

of the study area (Jutras et al. 2015), the maintenance of peculiar paleocurrent

patterns into the Serpukhovian, with a lack of convergence between

paleoflows coming from different source areas, suggests that halokinesis in

the Bay of Fundy was still ongoing in Serpukhovian times. However, as

Serpukhovian paleocurrents are north-verging on the southern flank of the

Maringouin-Minudie Anticline at Joggins and Maringouin (Figs. 1 and 6), it is

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clear that deposition of Mabou Group units was not influenced by this SSW-

striking salt wall, which therefore must have developed subsequently.

- The Cobequid, Caledonia and Westmorland highlands were identified as three

distinct source areas for upper Visean units (Jutras et al. 2015). Although

facies distribution and paleocurrent data suggest that the Cobequid and

Caledonia highlands were still active source areas in Serpukhovian times, the

presence of fine, early Serpukhovian grey beds onlapping the Westmorland

basement at Well Mud Creek 52 (Fig. 1) suggests that the latter source area

was no longer active, but was instead forming a shoal in the broad lake that,

according to Hamblin (2001), accommodated much of the upper Brigantian to

Pendleian Hastings Formation of northern Nova Scotia (Fig. 9).

- A period of weathering and erosion occurred near the Pendleian-Arsnbergian

boundary in the study area, possibly marking a significant step in the ongoing

late Mississippian drop in global sea level in association with the aggravation

of glacial conditions in low latitudes.

- Fault-controlled Serpukhovian sedimentation eventually resumed in

Arsnbergian times in relation with an increase in basin subsidence, but under a

different climate regime. The Arsnbergian Claremont Formation is

substantially coarser than the underlying Shepody Formation, and it no longer

includes non-oxidized deposits with plant remains nor convincing evidence of

climate cyclicity. Greater distance from a globally receding sea may explain

the reduced sensitivity of the sedimentary system to orbitally-controlled

climatic and glacioeustatic cyclicity.

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- A long period of weathering and karstification took place between the

Arsnbergian and the Yeadonian, which is a time that corresponds to an

important floral crisis in eastern Canada and Europe (Utting 1987; Utting and

Giles 2008). Again, an aggravation of Gondwanan glaciations is inferred,

possibly paired with a slowdown of fault activity and basin subsidence rates.

Regarding the long-term evolution of the halokinetic setting in the western part of

the Cumberland Basin, our preliminary data suggest that paleocurrents are still north-

verging on the southern flank of the Minudie-Maringouin Anticline salt wall in the lower

Pennsylvanian Boss Point Formation (Fig. 3, Maringouin-West section). Hence, a

sedimentological study of the rest of the Pennsylvanian succession would be needed to

determine when the SSW-striking salt walls that are inferred to have partly controlled

Pennsylvanian deposition in the Cumberland Basin (Waldron et al. 2013) first became

active.

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of

Canada for financial support. We also wish to thank H. Falcon-Lang, P. Giles and J.

Allen for constructive reviews, as well as A. Polat for the editorial handling of this

manuscript.

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Pointe Sawyer and Chemin-des-Pêcheurs formations) in Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec;

implications regarding the evolution of the northwestern sector of the Maritimes

Basin. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 38: 1-19.

Jutras, P., Prichonnet, G., and McCutcheon, S. 2003. Alleghanian deformation in the

eastern Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec, Canada. Geological Society of America Bulletin,

115: 1538-1551.

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38

Jutras, P., Utting, J., and McCutcheon, S.R. 2005. Basin inversion at the Mississippian-

Pennsylvanian boundary in northern New Brunswick, Canada. Bulletin of Canadian

Petroleum Geology 53: 390-404.

Jutras, P.,MacRae, R.A., and Utting, J. 2007. Visean tectonostratigraphy and basin

architecture beneath the Pennsylvanian New Brunswick Platform of Eastern Canada.

Bulletin of Canadian Petroleum Geology 55: 217-236.

Jutras, P., McLeod, J., MacRae, R.A. and Utting, J., 2015. Complex interplay of faulting,

glacioeustatic variations and halokinesis during deposition of upper Visean units over

thick evaporites in the western Cumberland Basin of Atlantic Canada. Basin

Research. doi: 10.1111/bre.12119

Martel, A.T. 1987. The Sackville Basin of New Brunswick. In Sedimentary basins and

basin-forming mechanisms. Edited by C. Beaumont and A.J. Tankard. Canadian

Society of Petroleum Geologists, Memoir 12, pp. 327-335.

McLeod, J.R. 2010. Paleoenvironmental and tectonostratigraphic evolution of the west

Cumberland Basin of Nova Scotia New Brunswick during the upper Mississippian.

Unpublished Master’s thesis, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Norman, G.W.H. 1941. Hillsborough, Albert and Westmorland Counties, New

Brunswick. Geological Survey of Canada, Map 647A.

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palynostratigraphy of the Mississippian-Pennsylvanian boundary interval in eastern

North America and the age of the beginning of the Kiaman. Geological Society of

America Bulletin126: 1068-1083.

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39

Pe-Piper, G., and Piper, D.J.W. 2002. A synopsis of the geology of the Cobequid

Highlands, Nova Scotia. Atlantic Geology 38: 145-160.

Richards B.C. 2013. Current status of the International Carboniferous Time Scale. In The

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Rostoker, M.D. 1960. The geology of the Canso Group in the Maritimes provinces of

Canada. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Boston University, Boston Massachusetts.

Ryan, R.J., and Boehner, R.C. 1994. Geology of the Cumberland Basin, Cumberland,

Colchester and Pictou Counties, Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia Department of Natural

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Rygel, M.C., Fielding, C.R., Frank, T.D., and Birgenheier, L.P. 2008. The magnitude of

late Paleozoic glacioeustatic fluctuations: A synthesis. Journal of Sedimentary

Research 78: 500–511, doi: 10.2110/jsr.2008.058.

Scotese, C.R., and McKerrow, W.S. 1990. Revised world maps. In Paleozoic

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Palaeozoic Maritimes Basin in southeastern New Brunswick, Canada. New

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Canso boundary beds of Nova Scotia, and their equivalents in Québec, New

Brunswick and Newfoundland. Geological Survey of Canada, Bulletin 374.

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Utting, J. 2011. Palynological study of eleven outcrop samples from the Carboniferous of

Broad Cove, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia (NTS 11K/06). Geological Survey of

Canada, Paleontological Report JU-2011-02.

Utting, J., and Giles, P.S. 2004. Biostratiographical implications of new palynological

data from the Mississippian of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, Canada. Memoirs of

the Association of Australasian Palaeontologists 29: 115-160.

Utting, J., and Giles, P.S. 2008. Palynostratigraphy and lithostratigraphy of Carboniferous

upper Codroy Group and Barachois Group, southwestern Newfoundland. Canadian

Journal of Earth Sciences 45: 45-67.

Utting, J., Giles, P.S., and Dolby, G. 2010. Palynostratigraphy of Mississippian and

Pennsylvanian rocks, Joggins area, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Canada.

Palynology 34: 43-89.

van der Zwan, C.J. 1981. Palynology, phytogeography and climate of the Lower

Carboniferous. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 33: 279–310.

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of a unique coal-bearing succession: Pennsylvanian Joggins Formation, Nova Scotia.

Geology 33: 337-340.

Waldron, J.W.F., Rygel, M.C., Gibling. M.R., and Calder, J.H. 2013. Evaporite tectonics

and the late Paleozoic stratigraphic development of the Cumberland basin,

Appalachians of Atlantic Canada. Geological Society of America Bulletin 125: 945-

960.

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Wilson, P., and White, J.C. 2006. Tectonic evolution of the Moncton Basin, New

Brunswick, eastern Canada: New evidence from field and subsurface data. Bulletin of

Canadian Petroleum Geology 54: 319-336.

Ziegler, A.M., Rees, P.M., and Naugolnykh, S.V. 2002. The Early Permian floras of

Prince Edward Island, Canada: Differentiating global from local effects of climate

change. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 39: 223–238, doi: 10.1139/e01-075.

Figure captions

Fig. 1. Geology of the study area (modified from Ryan and Boehner 1994, and St. Peter

and Johnson 2009), and studied localities. Inset: lateral extent of the Maritimes Basin, with

close-up of the Cumberland Basin.

Fig. 2. Middle to upper Mississippian stratigraphy in the study area and adjacent areas of

eastern Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (time scale after Richards 2013). CH =

Cumberland Hill; D Cape = Dorchester Cape; HC = Hopewell Cape; LkB = Lime-kiln

Brook; MWG = Middle Windsor Group.

Fig. 3. Serpukhovian interval at Cape Enragé, Maringouin West and Maringouin East, New

Brunswick, with palynological localities (Geological Survey of Canada samples C-#) and

results indicated on the left side of the columns. Note: “Brigantian” spore dates refer to the

Schopfipollenites acadiensis–Knoxisporites triradiatus (AT) Concurrent Range Zone

assemblage, whereas “Pendleian” refers to the late Brigantian to Pendleian Grandispora

spinosa–Ibrahimispores magnificus (SM) Concurrent Range Zone (Utting et al. 2010).

Legend on Figure 4.

Page 41 of 54



Draft

42

Fig. 4. Serpukhovian interval at Downing Head West, Downing Head East and Downing

Cove, Nova Scotia. See note regarding spore dates in the caption of Figure 3.

Fig. 5. (A) Disconformable contact between the Middleborough and Shepody formations

at Cape Enragé, New Brunswick. (B) Disconformable contact between a coarse grey

sandstone bed at the top of the Shepody Formation and an intraclastic conglomerate bed

at the base of the Claremont Formation at Downing Cove, Nova Scotia. (C) Karst

structures within coarse sandstone in the upper part of the Claremont Formation at

Downing Head West, Nova Scotia. (D) Disconformable contact between the Claremont

and Boss Point formations at Downing Head West, Nova Scotia. Hammer for scale.

Fig. 6. Paleocurrent vectors based on the measurement of scour-and-fill trough structures

in (A) the upper Brigantian to Pendleian Shepody Formation and (B) in the Arsnbergian

Claremont Formation.

Fig. 7. (A-B) Aerial views of the Downing Head and Downing Cove areas, showing the

lateral continuity of thick grey sandstone sequences and intervening red beds in the

Shepody Formation below the Shepody/Claremont unconformity.

Fig. 8. Paleogeographic model for the western Cumberland Basin in latest Asbian times

based on mapping data (Ryan and Boehner 1994; St. Peter and Johnson 2009),

geophysical and sedimentological data (Jutras et al. 2015), and principal shortening

direction based on Faure et al. (1996), Jutras and Prichonnet (2005), and Wilson and

White (2006). Modified from Jutras et al. (2015).

Fig. 9. Paleogeographic model for the grey intervals of the upper Brigantian to Pendleian

Shepody Formation.

Page 42 of 54



Draft

43

Fig. 10. Paleogeographic model for the red intervals of the upper Brigantian to Pendleian

Shepody Formation.

Fig. 11. Paleogeographic model for the red beds of the Arsnbergian Claremont

Formation.

Page 43 of 54



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Draft

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Page 48 of 54



Draft



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Page 49 of 54



Draft

Fig. 7

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Page 50 of 54



Draft

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inferred Middle Windsor Gpin salt expulsion minibasin

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Fig. 8

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Calhoun

Page 51 of 54



Draft

Mud Creek52

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inferredsalt

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West

Maringouin

West

Maringouin

East


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Maringouin

West

Maringouin

East

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SaltDome)

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Fig. 9

Page 52 of 54



Draft

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West

Maringouin

West

Maringouin

East


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West

Maringouin

East

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Fig. 10

Page 53 of 54



Draft

Mud Creek52 Columbia/

Corridor

inferredsalt

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West

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West

Maringouin

East


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West

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East

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SaltDome)

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10 km

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Gaytons

Calhoun

Fig. 11

Page 54 of 54



sedimentology of the lower serpukhovian (upper implications › bitstream › 1807 › 70145 › 1...

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